Dusk stood up and let the water fall from his robes, it sliding surprisingly easily onto the ground. *Huh he must have the same water repelling properties I do.* Dusk had a look around and saw the pile of dirt properly for the first time and understanding that Jack had chosen to erect a suitable defence.
Turning his mask towards Kat though he just found her hovering in the air, in exactly the same place she was before the challenge started. Kat waved back at Dusk with a wry smile and he just kept his mask directed at her.
*What is he thinking? Is he staring at me? Is he looking for an answer?* Eventually Dusk turned to Thyme and asked "Can you enlighten me as to how the others completed this challenge?"
"Hmmm" said Thyme "I suppose I am capable of that, but it doesn't seem very sporting of me. That's information you could potentially have if you payed more attention in that round"
"Jack hid!" yelled out Skye
Dusk turned around and looked up at his team leader "What?"
"I said, Jack hid, the thing was an illusion so when he erected a stone barrier it couldn't break through because it isn't actually real" said Skye
"Why does it matter if a wraith can break down a wall or not?" said Dusk
"Well… ah, clearly his wasn't a wraith then. I mean who would really be so silly to use stone to block out a wraith" said Skye flashing nervous looks a Thyme looking for confirmation.
Thyme turned away from Skye to face the God Crushers box and just wiggled his eyebrows at them.
The God Crushers all burst out laughing, slapping their hands on their knees, Jim and John slapped each other on the back and Skye at them with a pout.
"Isn't that giving us the answer?" asked Dusk
"No, I gave the God Crushers a hint at the answer and they took action on that. What they did or did not do with that information once it reached them is none of my concern" said Thyme looking away from Dusk and sipping on a cup of tea.
"Ah" said Dusk "That reminds me, can I also have some cake?"
"Do you deserve cake?" asked Thyme
Dusk didn't say anything apparently stunned by the question. "Um? No?"
"Then why should I give you any?" asked Thyme
"You like to share?" asked Dusk
"Is that a question or an answer?" said Thyme
"Answer?" said Dusk still clearly asking a question.
Thyme just sighed and handed Dusk a cookie jar. "Here you go. A reward and punishment both"
"How is this a punishment?" asked Dusk
"One of them is super spicy" said Thyme
"Ok then…" said Dusk shaking his head and walking towards his groups seating area.
Thyme then proceeded to walk over to Jack's dome and nock on it a few times. "Hey Jack" more nocking "Rounds over" more nocking "You can come out now" nocking intensifies.
"JACK!" said Thyme. Kat had to cover her ears; the sound was unbearably loud to her. Demon energy rushed to her ear drums to try and protect them from the sound, which while succeeding in protection also further amplified her hearing ability preventing it from actually being efficient.
The dome around Jack crumbled as the man himself pushed through it. "What whas zat?" said Jack as he shook dust out of his ears.
"The monster is gone Jack, the next round will start soon" said Thyme
"Cool, thanks" said Jack who stood up casually and yawned.
As this was happening Dusk got to his group and whispered to Skye "So how did Kat get through the round, I didn't want to ask that one in front of everyone else, I'm not sure how a demon would react to my prying"
"Well" said Skye "I honestly don't know. She just stood there looking confused the whole time until a small figure appeared on her shoulder and then she seemed to calm down a lot. I have a guess but I don't really want to say"
"Why is that" asked Dusk
Skye just nudged him in Kat's direction where upon looking up met her eyes. Kat waved back and said "My hearings pretty good. I don't mind that you asked, but the whispering wasn't helping you"
"Clive why the hell didn't you put up a wind barrier or something" said Dusk
"You didn't ask kid" said Clive
"We're the same age!" said Dusk
Clive just shrugged at him and went back to watching the contest. *Huh, they really don't act the same way. Wait hang on, that makes the most sense anyway, Gareth said this was a contest for the younger generation, if they can refer to themselves as such, pretty sure Gareth's older than I am.*
*Then again maybe he just seems kind of mature? But no, no way, Nixilei is probably older as well… wait am I the youngest? Aren't Green and Nixilei like the same age? Or am I crazy… Am I misremembering*
While Kat was trying to figure out everyone's age Jack was busying himself with getting rid of the dust that had accumulated on his clothes, though he wasn't trying that hard, only removing it from his hair for the most part.
Five minutes passed, the groups in the stands conversed, Thyme sipped his tea, Kat hovered around, and Jack stood around yawning. That was until he quickly reconstructed his stone gloves.
Kat noticed this and perked up glancing down at her orb but finding seemingly nothing had changed. At first nothing seemed different. *I guess it's another round of heat, or maybe cold this time.*
That is until Jack's glove started sizzling. As the burning sound continued Jack summoned several additional circles and built up the gloves, making it look more like he was carrying two chunks of stone around rather than stone gloves.
But still they continued to burn, molten slag rolling of the sides and sizzling as Jack piled the stone higher and higher. Waves of heat radiated from the orb in his hands, soon Jack even widened the structure and curved it.
This let the molten rock fall further away form him as it sizzled on the ground. While this was going on several sigils on his robes lit up covering his body in a layer of rock that grew by the second.
As it travelled down Jack's legs Thyme interrupted. "I feel I should warn you, that if your armour connects your hands and feet the ground will be touching the orb. I do think it is a little unfair regarding your element but I'm giving you one extra warning so it's fair game.
Jack pulled a strained face behind his armoured mask as he quickly added an extra sigil near his feet that prevented additional rock from forming past a certain point, his arms quivered as they supported the weight of the stone, but it wasn't too much… not yet.
But as the stone continued to heat up, more slag fell, and the temperature in the immediate area rose. His body surrounded in it's cacoon of stone was starting to let the heat seep in. His stone form seemed to have no gaps in the armour but still the heat prevailed.
Sweat poured out of Jack as he heavily contemplated just giving up, saying the challenge didn't matter that much, saying he had tried his best. Though he knew these things were lies. This was his chance to prove he could protect his friends from anything, his chance to prove that just because he was the mage didn't mean he was weak. That he was a real adventurer, and that low paying handyman work didn't mean he was weak.
Of course this was in stark contrast to Kat. As the temperature on the orb started to tick higher and higher Kat was finally able to notice it. However rather than the intense heat and burning that Jack was fighting off Kat felt it much closer to a warm bath on a cold night, or a sharing your lap with a family pet.
Kat shivered a bit as she held the warmth close and let it flow through her. It wasn't that she had ever been called since becoming a full demon, far from it, but she hadn't found anything quite so comfortable as this. *Well, this is almost has good as hugging Sylvie or Lily, and I guess I can add Vivian to that list now. But ah how I've missed this feeling and I didn't even notice.*
Once again though the contestants in the stands just looked at the smiling Kat hugging the fiery death ball that could melt through half a metre of solid stone almost as fast as Jack could conjure and hugging it close a hand warmer on a cold winter's day.
"Your powers are DUMB!" yelled Lynn as everyone else nodded there heads along.. Perhaps in the past they might have ignored her, but seeing Kat treat rock melting heat so casually even the rest of Kat's team was willing to agree on this one.